Tara Gray serves as associate professor of criminal justice and as the first director of the Teaching Academy at New Mexico State University (NMSU). The Teaching Academy seeks to improve student learning by providing NMSU educators with professional development in teaching, leadership and mentoring. The Academy helps educators develop extraordinary teaching lives embedded in exceptional careers.

Tara was educated at the United States Naval Academy, Southwestern College in Kansas and Oklahoma State, where she earned her Ph.D. in economics by asking, “Do prisons pay?” She taught economics at Denison University before joining the Department of Criminal Justice at NMSU. She has published dozens of academic articles and three books, including Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar. She has been honored at New Mexico State and nationally with nine awards for teaching or service.

Tara has presented faculty development workshops to 10,000 participants at more than 120 venues, in 35 states, and in Thailand, Guatemala, Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Workshop participants report that she is “spirited, entertaining, and informative—she’s anything but gray!”